Pain You Enjoy

Its official!

We registered, paid and chose a new training schedule.

(Yes, I said WE.)

I will, once again, begin writing about running/training but will try to keep it on happyme so y'all won't get thoroughly annoyed and/or nauseous.

Warning: I will be writing some about body shape, body image and body changes as I train so if it bugs you when a "skinny" person talks about that kind of stuff, then don't look.

Happyme is "mainly, mostly just for me" so I write about what I want and how I am feeling about . . .stuff.

Y'all have been warned. No fair hating me for something I write there!

Wish us luck!

Happy Birthday, my sweet (Blessing #2)

Happy Birthday, my sweet!

(yesterday)

I'm sorry to say that Adam's birthday was just a regular old Tuesday. Adam went for a run, I cooked, the girls went to school, Adam went to work, I had a primary meeting, the girls had homework, blah, blah,blah.

Thankfully we did get to celebrate a bit over the weekend. Grandma and grandpa watched our kidlets on Saturday so Adam and I could go see a movie AND get some dinner. We were gone for hours and it was lovely, just lovely.

We saw Invictus (we recommend it) and got Chinese/sushi (at Asian Star) for dinner. The Chinese food was good and the sushi was fabulous.

Grandma and grandpa had us over for birthday lunch on Sunday.

The kids were so excited to decorate this cake for Adam. Inspired by Uncle Ben's cake last month the kids worked their artistic magic.

I am thankful to have such a hard-working husband, a supportive co-parent and a kind friend in Adam.

Happy Birthday, my sweet.

I love you

p.s. For reasons that, I hope, are completely obvious Adam is blessing #2 this year.

Ogden Marathon 2009

Wait, I know what you're thinking because that was my first thought too. Ogden? Who would want to run through Ogden? Actually the course was beautiful! The entire event was incredible start to finish.
Once upon a time, eight months ago, Adam said, "I'm going to run the Ogden Marathon in May." I, apparently having a really good day, replied, "How cool. I want to run it too. May? What day?
"May 16th", came his answer. "Perfect", I said. "We should run it for our anniversary. Now that would be a cool thing to do together." Agreed!
And so it began. Seven and a half long months of running and running and running. After six weeks we were forced inside by snow and spend the next four months scheduling our days around sharing a treadmill. Me and that treadmill, we have a love/hate relationship. I hated being forced to run inside on 13 mile days but found it difficult to part when the weather warmed in March. Running paths and sidewalks scared me and . . . it was going to hurt again, wasn't it? Yes. And it did!
March marked an increase in mileage. Long run Saturdays went into double digits and didn't come back down. We found ourselves running further and further, exceeding our own expectations and loving the sense of accomplishment we were feeling. We were able to run together occasionally but mostly alone. Thankfully, grandma Vickie and fam agreed to watch the kids for runs 15 miles and longer. I loved being able to do those runs with Adam.
Skip to race day.
Alarm sounds at 3 am and we pop right out of bed. Eat, shower, dress, sunscreen, eat again, check and double check the checklist (SportShield, blister powder, Chapstick, ibuprofen, GU, sunglasses, running hat, bib, race chip, watch, drop bag, bandaids, ipods). Bags in the car and by 3:45 we're off. We made good time though anxious that parking would be a nightmare and we'd miss the buses. Parking was close and easy and we made the buses in plenty of time (4:50 am). By this time I can NOT eat anymore bagel or banana and drinking slows down so we're not having to stop and pee every mile. The bus ride takes almost an hour but the bus is warm and I finally relax. I actually fall asleep for a while. Now all we have to do is run. We can so do that!

We reach the "full start" at 5400 feet elevation in the dark. There are only 2000 runners (compared to St. George's 7000) and more port-o-lets than I've ever seen in one place. There are fires going and we look like "huddled masses" around them since it is so stinkin' cold. I'm talkin' see your breath cold. Brrrr! The sun starts to rise and we see our beautiful surroundings more clearly. As the sun hits us we warm almost instantly. They announce the clothing drop truck in leaving in five minutes so we're forced to shed our sweats but at least its time to line up. We find our pace group and at 7:02 am we are off. The first ten fly by but we are keeping to our pace pretty well. The next ten don't fly but they pass quickly. We run around PineView Reservior and through little mountain towns. We come to our only "hill" at mile 14 and kick its trash. At mile 17 we head down Ogden Canyon and its incredible. At mile 22 we exit the canyon and things flatten out. The going gets a little rougher at 22 and 24 but not as bad as I was expecting. I was able to avoid "the wall" entirely and was able to enjoy the sites and the people.

The kids spent the night at grandma and grandpa's house. They and the whole family brought the kids to cheer us on.

(Ella's sign says, "Ella says: Go mom and dad! GOOD JOB)

Ella has gotten very into our training and all the excitement. She was a little disappointed when I explained that kids shouldn't run marathons but when she gets older we'll run one together. She seemed okay with that answer. She wants to run a Kids K this summer. Pappaw will be so proud.

The family made signs for us. The kids were pretty excited.

I promised one running picture and here it is. Unfortunately there isn't a single running picture that we could both agree to post so this is all you get. I'm waving to the kids.

We came across the finish line together (though not holding hands, our last name in not Hallmark). I felt myself getting misty eyed but my brother-in-law, Sean, saved me. I heard him call our names for a picture (just the distraction I needed).

I wanted water and Adam wanted ice. We got our water, ice and our finisher medals.

I wondered at the time how long I'd keep the medal. I'm not the nostalgic, keeper-of-stuff type. In the days since I've decided that I'll keep it forever.

Running our first marathon was incredible. In retrospect, even the training was so cool is many ways. The weekly sense of accomplishment is addictive. The pride I felt when we finished was the same as the day we graduated from college.

Just as Adam and I shared graduation day, we shared this day too. I am so thankful to have done this with Adam. I don't think I would have endured the seven months of training without knowing Adam was doing it too.

I must admit that I've been lost these past two weeks. I realized how dependent I became on "the schedule." Schedules work for us. We want to run some shorter distance races this summer and do some speed work, just for a change.

I want to run the Top of Utah Marathon this fall. I think I could be hooked. Hooked on the security of the schedule, hooked on fighting my 30's, hooked on the accomplishment, hooked on the feeling you get from being at the start with thousands of others that just trained like you've trained and feeling respect for those complete strangers, hooked on my local running store, hooked on Sauconys and really comfortable running socks, hooked on a really good sweat that keeps all the little hairs from getting in your face and hooked on the way Ella bragged to her classmates at school so that when I came for my regular volunteer day they clapped and cheered and gave me hugs.
It felt good y'all. Real good! I have a marathoning friend, Courtney, who I can only hope to keep up with one day, who wrote me once that finishing her first marathon was the coolest thing she'd ever done besides her wedding day and the days her babies were born. I must admit I thought she was nuts. I still thought she was nuts race day afternoon. In the two weeks since, I've decided she's exactly right.

Tomorrow morning I will strap myself to a new schedule, tie on my RIDEs and begin again. I can't wait!


p.s. The good outweighed the day that day but there was still bad.

1) At mile three I felt a strange rubbing on the little toe of my right foot. I finally put a bandaid on it at mile 14 but it was already a pretty impressive blister. That spot NEVER blistered before. I'm baffled.

2)I discovered that my stomach disapproved of my marathoning. Its voiced its disagreement after mile 10 or so and clean through that evening. Again, baffled. I took EVERY precaution.

3) I hate GU. The stuff nearly makes me vomit. It takes a lot of GU to run 26.2 and feel decent. gag!

4) Water from heavy duty plastic bag looking things tastes NASTY! PowerAde made with water from heavy duty plastic bag looking things tastes nasty too.

5)Despite my running shoes being 1 1/2 sizes bigger than my regular shoe size several of my toenails KILLED for a couple of days. Thankfully I'll get to keep them though.

6) Running downhill LOTS can hurt too. Don't forget to train uphill and downhill.

Even if you don't think you can, you can. You are the only one stopping you. Eight months ago I couldn't run a block, literally, not a block. Find a schedule, do what you can, listen to your body and "go man GO" (name that movie).

Thank you to our friends and families for all your love and support. Thank you for the babysitting, encouragement and advice. Y'all are so cool!

Ogden Marathon 2009 . . . almost

I promise I have not forgotten about my promised marathon post. I am trying to collect a few pictures to put with the post. I really like to have pictures with my posts whenever possible and yes, I'm aware I'm a little spazzy. Painfully aware!
There is a picture or two trapped in my phone and I CAN NOT get them out. Any ideas of how to get a picture in "Saved Messages" to save to the little memory card in my phone? I'm nearly to the point of digging out . . . the manual (gasp). I'm that desperate.

I WILL figure this out and and soon. Promise.

10th anniversary con't

My pictures are a mess but I was able to dig out a few.

Amy, me and Chrissy - awesome chicas!

Brent, Adam and Lance
We still see these guys and their fams pretty regularly.



Me, Ella and Adam in the Bahamas on an adventure. We moved there for Adam to flight instruct, which didn't end up working out (aircraft safety concerns, I was preggo, lack of regular paycheck) I should do a Bahamas post one day. It was a fun adventure.

I've got ten years worth of pictures in several places around the house and in storage. I would love to get them organized but that will certainly have to wait for another day and possibly another decade.

10th Anniversary

Adam and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last week. May 22, 1999 was a big day. May 22, 2009 was totally ordinary and perfect. Adam went to work, we lazed around the house, we took the kids swimming and I opted for pizza instead of cooking. See! Ordinary and perfect.

We "celebrated" our anniversary last weekend with a short little run (Ogden Marathon, post coming soon) and a lovely night at a b & b. I love, love, love b & b's.

10 Tidbits that made our Wedding One-of-a-Kind

1. Three days before getting married we left SLC and drove straight through to his grandparents house in Kansas City, MO. We thought it would be fun to catch a Royals game but were so tired we only made it though six innings.

2. His grandma (GG to our kids) woke me up the next morning with a knock, knock on the door and a "Wake up, sleeping beauty." in her sweetest voice. We love GG and Pop.

1. We got married in St. Louis, MO. Missouri has a three day waiting period for marriage licenses. We didn't have three days to wait. We hit the first courthouse in western Missouri(Jackson Co.) and prayed some judge would give us a marriage license. Thankfully the first one did. Interestingly enough, Pop went with us to get our marriage license.

2. We'd allowed the whole day for the three hour drive from KC to STL just in case judges were being stingy with marriage licenses that day. We'd planned to hit every county courthouse until someone said yes. Since the first one said yes, we had time to kill so we drove up to Liberty, MO to the visitor center there. Very cool!

3. The day we got married I remember driving to the temple with my mom and dad. My dad commented that I was the coolest (not nervous) bride he's ever seen. He also reassured me that if I wanted to back out, I was welcome to. (My parents really do like Adam, promise.)

4. The photographer we'd planned on, who wasn't coming since she had a daughter in the hospital, ended up coming but forgot film in the rush to get there FROM THE HOSPITAL (the woman's a saint). Everyone scavenged their cars and purses and came up with six rolls of film. We both got sunburned while Janette took six rolls of gorgeous pictures. After we finished, she handed us the film, congratulated us and, I assume, returned to the hospital.

5. We then changed clothes and drove the five hours to Memphis where our reception was waiting for us at mom and dad's. The house looked gorgeous.

6. My brother, Ben, was away serving a mission in Canada when we got married. A guy owed my dad a favor and made a life size cardboard cut out of Ben. It was hilarious to have "Ben" standing in the corner and more hilarious to see people momentarily mistake it for the real Ben.

7. We parked the car in the garage and locked all doors leading to the garage. Only my immediate family knew how to get into the garage. My dad sold us out and our friends (Lance, Brent, Chrissy and Amy) worked a number on our car. In the process, Lance ruined the tie he was wearing (that's he'd borrowed from Adam, funny huh?) Adam was ticked when we found the chocolate syrup and Oreo mess but Jeff (trying to impress my sister) washed it for us so Adam wouldn't ruin his tux. Thanks Jeff!

8. We spent the night in Memphis at the Adam's Mark Hotel (which everyone thought was wildly funny.)

9. Then Sunday morning we drove down to the Gulf (at some point Adam woke up to me doing about 90 and flipped out) where we stayed for four days. When the people at the hotel found out we were newlyweds they comped the room for us. So sweet of them. We had a fabulous time. I love the Gulf!

10. My dad was sweet enough to give us his "TOTAL" gas card to pay for the gas to and from Gulf Port. There were a million TOTAL stations in Memphis in the last nineties and absolutely none between Memphis and Gulf Port. We didn't charge a dime to his card but it was the thought that counted. Thanks dad.

Thank you everyone for all the driving you did. No one got away with less than ten hours of driving while Adam's family drove over 60 hours that trip.

Thank you, Janette, for leaving your 12 year old in the hospital to take our wedding pictures. I love them so much.

Thank you to our friends Brent, Lance, Amy and Chrissy for making such long drives to our wedding. They all have their own funny stories to tell from that trip.

Thank you mom and Vickie for making bride's maid dresses and to my mom again, for making my wedding dress and veil. I love, love, love my wedding dress. And was so glad to share my veil with my sister when she got married last year. Can you feel the love?

These last ten years have gone incredibly fast and unbelievably slow. We've moved 11 times, lived in two countries, three states (with a child born in each) and nine cities. We both graduated from college and Adam is on his second career, both of which he has loved. We've driven cross country more in ten years than lots of people do in a life time. We love adventures and are willing to do something different to accomplish a goal. I am here to push and pull Adam outside himself while Adam reminds me to relax and have fun. We kiss in public and do our best not to settle into a married/parental routine. I am thankful to have so much more than a roommate and a co-parent. I have a best friend, a lover, a confidant, a sounding board, a therapist, an editor and a motivator. Man, did I get a great deal, or what?

If you read all the way through this you are truly a good friend (or just plain bored). Now go kiss your husband/wife just because and don't forget your own anniversary.

p.s. Did I mention that I got caught in the automatic sliding doors when leaving the temple? Oh, it was . . . totally not embarrassing! Not at all!

Punishment

I know I promised to keep the running talk on happyme but I had to share this one.
This past Saturday's run was 18 miles. Adam and I RAN EVERY STEP of 18 miles and it felt good. Relatively good, as good at 18 miles can feel.

I am so dang proud of us. We only have one really long run left before the big day in May.

Now you're wondering, why is this post titled "Punishment"? Punishment because my body is totally punishing me for making it run 18 miles. My knees have screamed at me all day and I wish they'd hush up. The rest of my body decided to show me whose boss during a short and easy four today. I worked for every step of that four miles today.

I am hoping and praying that my body can get over its vengeful issues before tomorrow's nine.

Hoping and praying. Hoping and praying.

Life is Consuming . . . .

Life is consuming my . . . well, life. Ever feel like you're busy all day and half the night and you barely scratch the surface of what "needs" to be done? Welcome to my life!

I'm working on time management and prioritizing and therefore will be rejoining the civilized world. And by civilized world, of course, I mean the blogging world. I can't promise exciting and life changing posts but I'll do my best.

FYI, I'm finding that this little goal Adam and I set for ourselves for our 10th anniversary is terribly consuming (time, mind, body everything consuming). I'm finding that I NEED to talk about it b/c it is such a big part of life right now. So, as not to bore and/or annoy I'll try to keep the running talk exclusively on happyme. Click at your own risk!

Happy Birthday, My Sweet

Yes, I sometimes call Adam "my sweet" and occasionally "honey" and even "darlin'". My sweet , honey, darlin' had a birthday this week. An understated, "I'd rather forget about it" birthday but a birthday nonetheless. Birthdays are wonderful times to reflect and think cumulatively about someone. I don't think its too unusual that Adam is the person that can make me the happiest and the maddest. But overall, there is way more happy than mad. Thank heaven!

We went to breakfast on his birthday. Spending time, one on one, with Adam reminds me that we are still friends not just married people and parents. We genuinely enjoy each others company and have fun together. This, obviously, isn't a picture of breakfast rather one of us at Lake of the Ozarks, MO back in 2006. My mom watched the girls so we could get away for a few days before Joseph was born. Despite me being just a tad pregnant, we had a blast. It felt like a second honeymoon.
Adam is already the "fun dad". He's the roller coaster riding, rope swinging into the river dad every kids wishes for. Adam is on the left in the white polo making the goofy face.
Adam will forever be my favorite goof ball.
Making things cool, fun and memorable for the kids is a big deal for Adam. This train cake was all his idea and doing. Who's the cool dad who made a train cake for his son's birthday with three little "helpers"? Yep, that's Adam!
And he changes diapers. See, I have proof! I so much appreciate all the help Adam is to me with the kids and around the house.
Adam's wanted a motorcycle forever. His got sold while he was on "the mish" and I'm not sure he ever fully recovered (just kidding). Back in 2005 it worked out for him to get one. He was just a little bit excited. Just a little, mind you.
Anyway, the point is not that Adam rides around looking handsome on a motorcycle. The point is that when I was pregnant with Joseph, Adam (not me) decided that it probably wasn't overly wise for a father of three to ride a motorcycle around when a car was safer. And HE SOLD IT. That's right, out of sheer responsibility and grown up-ness he sold it. I didn't argue.
This is Adam after running the Provo River 1/2 marathon back in 2007. I've never run a 1/2 marathon, have you? He just decided, trained and did it, all by himself. I was awfully proud of him. And he's at it again, Adam came up with the idea to run a marathon for our 10th anniversary (coming up in May). I'm tagging along for the run this time, since its my anniversary too. Adam encourages me and reminds me to get my runs in while I don't have/need to say a word to him. He is on the ball.

I am thankful for my sweet husband, my sweet 33 year old husband. Yes, he's 33 now.
Adam is a wonderful husband that I am blessed to have for my own. Nobody's perfect all the time but he's working on it.

Family Picture

Adam isn't a picture person and I obviously haven't perfected my nagging skills since we've NEVER had a family picture taken. When the kids are grown and wonder why we don't have family pics, I'm so blaming Adam.

This will have to do for now. Thank you, Ella, for this lovely family picture. Its the best we can do for now, I suppose.

p.s. Any nagging suggestions ladies?

Sharing

Our girls are quite the little sharers.

Adam wasn't able to go to the Halloween party with us last night. Ella and Grace felt bad that he was missing out on all the fun (aka candy) so they shared.

Grace wrote dad a whole "letter" and drew him "shapes" (that's the rolled up one). For some reason they felt the need to unwrap the candy then add the ice thingies, "So it doesn't melt, mom!" said Ella with a very "duh" tone in her voice. (Yah, in case it melts inside our house. Where the heat isn't on. At night. Right. Duh me!)

Ella, Grace and Joe are all great sharers. They are more than happy to share their candy with each other and with mom and dad. I'm hoping they hold on to this trait for the next 100 years or so.

Exhausted and dirty!

We love, love, love Millcreek Canyon. Its super green, not as busy as the other canyons and just for picnicing and hiking/biking. We've be dying to get out of the valley and decided dinner in the canyon was just the get away we needed.

It rained a bit in the beginning but thankfully didn't get eveything all muddy. Adam drove far enough up the canyon (despite my requests to "just pick a place") that we were the only ones at our picnic site. Ella and Grace played "hide and seek" (the kind where mom can always see you) and Joseph played in the dirt and threw rocks into the stream. Shocker!
Adam got lots of "help" building our fire. Adam is the king of the "one match fire". How has no ward ever called him into scouting?
Time absolutely flew while we were there. Before we knew it three hours had passed, we started getting cold and dark was sneeking quickly up on us.

The kids were exhausted and DIRTY on the way home. Isnt that how real fun always ends, exhausted and dirty?

The Great Bike Adventure!

Getting all our kids onto bikes has been a fiasco. Its a very long story the spans two years, two moves, three sets of training wheels, two tire repair kits and countless trips to many, many stores. Let me just say it has been frustrating. But HALLELUJAH they are finally all on bikes!

Adam has been so good to assemble bikes, put on training wheels and fix flats. Hopefully this will be the last "fix" of the summer. Notice the line of chairs, blankets and pillows off to the left. Everyone was "watching" daddy fix Grace's bike. Who knew flat tire repair was a spectator sport?
Miss Grace on her purple bike with her new training wheels. She ended up getting super frustrated saying, "It keeps stopping."
Joseph wanted to go but didn't want me to touch him or his "bi". Since he can't pedal it yet he ended up screaming ALOT.
Ella has finally gotten the hang of it. I'm thinking we'll be able to take off her training wheels by the end of the summer. She's loving it and I am too.